Telescope Buying Guide

Ignis asked:


Hi, I’m new to astronomy… but I always have had a fascination for the stars and I would like to start watching them as a hobby…so what telescope would you recommend?… considering that I have a budged of about 1000 USD. Also… it would be great if I could connect the telescope to my PC.

Dave asked:


I’m thinking about getting a telescope, but I’m not exactly sure how these things work. If you were to get one of the better ones for a couple hundred dollars or so, what exactly do these telescopes do? And how well can you see things in outer space with the telescopes? If you were to look at Mars with one of these telescopes, how well would you be able to see it? Whoever have one of the nice telescopes, can you tell me how it works, what you can see, and how well you can see it? thanks alot guys

Jacob asked:


I’m really interested in astronomy, and want a good telescope to see objects that are very far away from me.

naruto asked:


Thanks to all of you guys who answer my first question.. I really don’t know about telescopes, this is my first one. Also the telescope has like a circle with lots of numbers and I thought they were you know to see the figure closer but I didn’t really get them closer.. They still pretty far.. So how do I see the images bigger? For example the stars.

trever_0808 asked:


I just moved here and am wondering if there’s any kind of park or something in or around Minneapolis that is a great place to bring a telescope. From my yard I don’t have much sky to look at, and all the street and garage lights make it frustrating.
It would be cool to find somewhere more dark with wider skies where my friends and I could just spend a night with my telescope.
Any tips?

Dennis C asked:


I was watching a documentary the other day and it said that the Hubble Space Telescope is in danger of falling apart and just drifting off into space (or crashing on Earth) because it has long past its due date. But besides the obvious “there’s not enough money” what’s preventing NASA from just retrieving the telescope and repairing it on Earth and sending it back up?

nymets6159 asked:


Well I really don’t exactly know what telescope I have, I know it’s a Meade telescope, but I don’t know the model. But, anyways, how would I find out the telescope’s focal length? Please I need this to check my eyepiece magnifications.

Shai Hulud asked:


I was watching Discovery channel last night, and there was a piece on some plans to launch a space based telescope that can detect earth size planets via the wobble method. Is this still planned to happen? What is the name of that telescope?

Palash asked:


how can i calculate the minimum & maximum magnification of a telescope? i need it to determine the distance of the nearest & the far object it can make a clear picture. with this information i can determine how much i can allow the lens to move. pls help.
I wanted to know what is the range of distance a specific telescope can focus clearly. ie. the distance of the nearest object it can focus & distance of the farest object it can focus. It’ll help me to calculate how much i should allow the lens to move.

JJ DonJuan asked:


People and conspiracy theorists believe the moon walk was a hoax made by the governement. But can our faithful Hubble telescope prove once and for all the evidence that we left behind on that incredible time in history? Our American Flag.